3) By doing this, Microsoft preserve its dominance since these commercial GNU/Linux distributions would work efficiently with Microsoft proprietary protocols. This will be beneficial to Microsoft in two ways: 1) Slow down full platform migrations. 2) This gives more time to Microsoft to formulate more effective strategies to deal with this open source trend/threat. [Update: Feb. 21, 2008, Microsoft’s Strategic Changes in Technology and Business Practices to Expand Interoperability announcement]